Chapter 188: Premier League Round 35, Champions League semi-finals start!

April 19th.

Vitality Stadium.

"pretty!"

"Lingard took a corner kick from the left and Smalling jumped up and headed the ball into the goal!"

"In the 29th minute of the first half, Manchester United broke the deadlock and took the lead!"

"Currently Bournemouth is in 12th place with 44 points and has no hope of finishing in the top six of the league, so they are not very motivated at the end of the season."

"This is good news for Manchester United. They don't have to spend too much effort to win this game and can focus more on the Champions League semi-final seven days later."

The smile on Zhan Jun's face became more and more intense.

He has watched Chu Feng grow from a bench player since the beginning of the season to now, getting closer and closer to the first league championship in his life.

"By the way, the first Chinese player to win the Premier League title was Dong Fangzhuo. If it hadn't been for his injury, maybe they would have had a chance to meet at Manchester United."

Zhang Lu suddenly sighed.

"It's better not to open the champagne in advance. Manchester City beat Swansea 5-0 yesterday. Their form was not affected too much. Instead, they became stronger."

Zhan Jun recalled Manchester City's reversal in the 11-12 season.

Although the story sounds wonderful, if it happened to Xiao Chu, he would find it somewhat unacceptable.

As the two chatted, time passed.

70th minute of the second half.

Chu Feng continued his hot form from the previous game, completing two consecutive breakthroughs. He was tripped by a defensive player after entering the penalty area.

Beep! The referee blew the whistle decisively and pointed to the penalty spot.

Penalty!

Manchester United's first penalty taker was Mata, and the second penalty taker was Lukaku, but he has never taken the initiative to ask for a penalty since he lost the penalty at the beginning of the season.

"Chu, keep going! Don't let Salah pull away from you. I haven't seen the Golden Boot yet!"

Mata generously handed the ball to Chu Feng, he is indeed a kind and gentle player.

"Juan, thank you!"

Chu Feng had no reason to refuse.

No athlete can refuse honor, and he is no exception.

But Salah's recent record is horrifying, with 34 goals already scored.

According to his memory of his previous life, Salah did not score 32 goals until the end of the season. It is probably because he changed the course of history that Salah also exploded with his inner world.

Chu Feng was under tremendous pressure from this, but sometimes he was too anxious, which caused his shooting movements to become distorted.

After the referee blew the whistle, Chu Feng took a deep breath and quickly ran towards the goal.

Bang! With a dull sound, the football went straight to the lower right corner of the goal.

Although Bournemouth's Begovic guessed the direction correctly, the angle of the shot was too tricky and he failed to touch the ball.

After the game resumed, there was no major commotion and it ended 0-2.

Manchester United won the game and continued to lead the Premier League standings.

At around eight o'clock in the evening, everyone returned to the Carrington training base, said goodbye to each other and went home.

Chu Feng first went to the cafeteria to eat something, then returned to the dormitory to wash up, and then began to study the Roma game video.

Over the past few years, Roma has been a force to be reckoned with in Europe.

Although there is often a shortage of funds in the process of renting and then buying, the gap is often filled by selling people.

But they continue to discover players with different qualities and are able to combine young forces with aging stars.

After replacing Rudi Garcia and Spalletti in succession, Di Francesco's unique and precise pre-match arrangements allowed Roma to burst out with tremendous energy.

3-0 Chelsea is enough to make people take notice.

But they even led the team to a comeback when they were 1-4 behind Barcelona, ​​staging a game that will be written into the history of football tactics.

Chu Feng mainly studied Roma's defensive strategy, that is, how to block Barcelona's strongest element, Messi.

To put it simply, there are only two words: blocking!

Because Roma used a three-center-back formation, they were able to suppress Messi with their numerical advantage. Coupled with the numerical advantage in the midfield and active interceptions, Barcelona's attack was almost silenced.

In the first half, Messi only touched the ball six times in the frontcourt and only once in the penalty area.

How should he break through? Chu Feng brought himself into the game and tried to break through with his personal ability.

Half an hour later he woke up from his dream. His vision was too narrow. If he looked at the overall tactics, his thoughts became clear instantly.

Roma is accustomed to using high pressure to force the opponent to make long passes in the backcourt, so as to use their height advantage to compete for high balls.

This tactic worked well against Barcelona.

After all, among Barcelona's frontcourt players, there are only two who are over 1.8 meters tall, namely Rakitic and Suarez.

But Manchester United is completely different.

Their giant formation will never lose out in the fight for high balls and can even gain a certain advantage.

But since I can think of this, Di Francesco can naturally think of it too.

Chu Feng analyzed for more than half an hour, and then went to study the player who was facing him.

Fazio, a former Tottenham player, transferred to Roma for 3.2 million euros this season. He made 5 successful steals and 11 successful headers in the match against Barcelona.

Florenzi De Rossi.

I started playing for Roma in 2001, and it has been 17 years now.

Maybe many fans are not familiar with him, but when it comes to the three major hardships in football, he is the first victim.

Since the summer of 2009, he has served as Roma's vice-captain and did not wear the captain's armband until Totti retired in the 16-17 season.

Although he is entering the end of his career, he has rich competition experience and is an indispensable spiritual leader for Roma.

Chu Feng watched the game video carefully and quickly became familiar with the technical characteristics of several people.

Seven days passed in a flash.

Rome.

Italy's capital and largest city has a history of 2,500 years, so it is called the "Eternal City".

View from the sky.

Rome was built on seven hills on the plain below the Tiber River.

According to legend, Romulus, the founder of Rome, was raised by a she-wolf.

So the emblem of the city of Rome is a she-wolf nursing her cubs, and it is also the team emblem of the Roma football club.

The bus with the Manchester United logo printed on it slowly drove towards the Olympic Stadium in Rome. Chu Feng sat in a window seat and admired the city of Rome through the glass.

The Baroque-style buildings on both sides of the street reveal deep traces of history.

"All roads lead to Rome, Chu, do you have the same proverb over there?"

McTominay asked curiously.

"Of course, like water flowing thousands of miles back to the sea, it actually means the same thing."

Chu Feng nodded.

McTominay suddenly sighed, "I heard that racial discrimination is very serious in Rome. I wonder if we will be discriminated against today?"

"Don't worry too much, I won't tell you anyway."

Chu Feng had heard the same news before. The two teams with the most serious racial discrimination in Italy are Roma and Lazio. They even don't let their own players go. It has reached an obsessive state.

When Ibrahimovic played for Juventus and Milan, he was called a "gypsy" by Roma fans.

Pogba didn't escape either.

There are endless "chimpanzees" and "niggers".

Chu Feng hates racial discrimination. If it weren't for the good atmosphere within Manchester United, he would probably have suffered the same treatment.

Even so, he was often discriminated against by Europeans during his youth training period.

Soon they arrived at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, a UEFA five-star stadium that can accommodate 105,000 spectators. ——Pre -match press conference.

Mourinho answered reporters' questions calmly and simply.

"Tactically, we have the upper hand and I think Manchester United should be in the final."

"But unfortunately, sometimes football doesn't give you what you deserve, and Roma is a very good team with a great coach and players."

“.”

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

Next door meeting room.

Di Francesco is very humble.

"Mourinho is a great coach who led Inter to the treble and restored glory to Italian football, so he deserves respect."

"But that doesn't mean Rome will back down."

"Chu? No, we want to restrict not only him, but the entire Manchester United team!"

“.”

Half an hour later.

In the players' tunnel.

Dzeko and Lukaku hugged each other. The former had spent a few years at Manchester City and became friends with the latter inexplicably.

The rest of the team members silently held the caddy.

Chu Feng looked at both sides of the passage and suddenly found a photo of Totti with his pants taken off, which seemed to be taken after Roma won the championship in the 01-02 season.

There are also stars in the history of the Roma team.

Ancelotti, Conte, Falcao, Giannini Soon, under the guidance of the referee, the players from both sides stepped out of the player tunnel.

The light in front of Chu Feng's eyes gradually expanded and finally turned into endless red.

Pompeii Red! Then he heard a thunderous cheer that made his eardrums throb uncontrollably.

Italian fans are really crazy.

Chu Feng complained in his heart.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this unique football culture that Serie A prospered so much around the 20th century and was called the "Little World Cup".

However, with the economic downturn, Serie A gradually declined.

"Good evening, audience friends!"

"Now broadcasting to you the 2017-18 Champions League semi-final."

"Roma vs Manchester United!"

"Let's take a look at the starting lineups of both teams."

"Attacking from right to left, the team in red is Roma, they are in a 3-5-2 formation, goalkeeper:."

"Di Francesco used two center forwards in the same lineup as Roma's reverse against Barcelona in order to strengthen the offense. It seems that he is determined to win at home."

"As for the dense defense in the midfield and backcourt, it can cut off the ground supply channel of Manchester United's frontcourt. Then, using the five defenders in the defensive formation, the numerical advantage formed in the backcourt can delay the opponent's counterattack using long passes and offset the risks brought by high-pressure defense."

“It’s a very clever pre-match arrangement, but the effect it can achieve still depends on the performance of the players.”

"Attacking from left to right, the team wearing the black away jersey is Manchester United, they lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, goalkeeper:."

"It is Manchester United's most used formation and has the highest winning rate this season. It performs well on both the offensive and defensive ends. Xiao Chu served as the left midfielder in this game."

"Manolas, the Roma winger, is valued at 43 million euros on Transfermarkt this season. His one-on-one defense is very high."

"The match between Xiaochu and Manolas is the highlight of this game and will largely determine the outcome of this game."

"I hope Xiao Chu can perform well."

Zhan Jun briefly described the information of both parties.

Although the Champions League match was scheduled at three in the morning, the number of people in the live broadcast room was still close to ten million.

For Chinese fans.

Watching a Manchester United game every week and following Manchester United news on weekdays seem to have become a part of life.

After all, it is a very happy thing to witness the rise of a Chinese player.

In that vast land, countless people looked at Chu Feng in the picture, with endless expectations rising in their hearts.

The screen was flooded with snow-like comments. - [Manchester United has a technical advantage, I think the chances of winning this game are very high.] - [Under and El Shaarawy did not start the game, I think Di Francesco is still a bit conservative. If the offense cannot put too much pressure on Manchester United's backcourt, the pressure on their own backcourt will be very high.] - [Nainggolan, De Rossi, Kolarov, and Dzeko are all 30 years old. Manchester United only needs to survive the first half] - [So the most important thing in this game is the head coach. Mourinho needs to establish the time nodes for phased efforts and the deployment of troops when pressing on the offense at different times. As long as the timing can be mastered, Manchester United can even easily win the game.] - [.]

The camera returns to the green field.

Following the referee's whistle.

The game officially begins! Amidst deafening cheers.

Roma's formation quickly advanced forward, the two fulcrum-type center forwards rushed forward frantically, and the wingers pulled to the side significantly.

Manchester United players could only keep retreating.

But the formation did not become chaotic and still looked orderly.

A very classic low post defensive stance.

After nearly a whole season of trials and tribulations, Manchester United has already developed a real sense of stability.

After continuous transfer.

Roma had already advanced across the half court, De Rossi received the ball near the center circle and then made a long diagonal pass to the right.

Florenzi stopped the ball easily.

He is not a traditional explosive winger, and basically relies on his excellent passing and cutting skills to promote the attack on the left side.

Without waiting for Ashley Young to grab the ball, Florenzi kicked directly.

The football spun violently and flew towards the front of the penalty area.

Dzeko and Schick occupied the most dangerous areas, while Nainggolan and Strootman quickly inserted from the back row to provide enough support points.

Facing interference from Smalling and Phil Jones.

The Czech center forward grabbed the first point and headed the ball back.

Nainggolan followed up and shot the ball.

Bang! The football blasted towards the goal like a cannonball, and amid the frustrated and regretful cries of the Roma fans, it brushed the goal post and rolled out of the bottom line.

"Roma created a threatening attack right at the start! If Nainggolan had been luckier, the score might have been changed."

"The Manchester United boys don't seem to be in form yet. They should be more aggressive in the frontcourt and not let De Rossi pass the ball easily, and not let the Roma players cross the ball without interference."

"The camera showed Mourinho on the sidelines, and he looked extremely angry."

All the Manchester United players were shocked and took several deep breaths when they heard the faint roar in their ears.

After this opening shot, everyone suppressed their contempt.

(End of this chapter)